Murder Mystery Parties
Murder mystery parties are a fun way to have a dinner party. There is a murder among your friends, and you must figure out whodunnit! There are a few things that you must do to make your shindig a fun and successful one.
If you want a murder mystery party without having to do all the work, you can call someone that can do it for you. There are people who will throw you a murder mystery party and save you all the work. Imagine having all the fun with none of the work that goes along with it.
This article will give you some ideas on how to do this all on your own and save some money while doing it. It will give you some hints on what to do and things that you will need to make your party successful. Get ready to have some fun with your own murder mystery party.
Ten Tips To a Successful Murder Mystery Party
1. Plan Your Dinner
You will want to plan everything about your dinner, first. Plan what theme that you want your party to be. Will your theme be the 1930’s, or another world, or maybe this year but in a different background? You could do this for Halloween, Christmas, or your birthday. You can choose any theme that you want, just make sure that you are consistent with your decorations.
That brings us to the next step – decorate your venue. Your venue could be your own home, maybe in your basement or garage. Look here for some decoration ideas: https://www.riddlesbrood.com/post/the-best-murder-mystery-decoration-ideas. It could be in your living room and dining room. It could be anywhere, but you want to decorate to match your theme. If you are doing the 1930’s, you could buy a backdrop that displays that theme at any party store. You could add balloons and streamers if you are celebrating your birthday. You could put Halloween decorations around if that is the theme you have chosen.
Next, you will want to choose your party food – are you going to do a full dinner, or just snacks, or a smaller dinner? You will need to decide on that and then decide on your party foods. The best type of food for this type of shindig would be finger foods so that your guests can mingle and talk amongst themselves.
2. Start with a Small Group of Friends
If you are having a murder mystery party for the first time, you might want to start with a small group. You can buy a boxed mystery party set that usually requires four to eight players, and this would be the right amount of people for a first timer.
3. Assign Character Roles Carefully
If you want your party to go well, read the character sheets very carefully before you even invite your friends to the party. You might have friends that are more outgoing than others, give them the starring roles. If you have quieter friends, give them some roles that are more in the background. Some of the roles are set for males while others are made for females, but you could talk to your friends and see if it matters to them. Once you have all the characters assign, let your friends know so that they can create their costumes.
4. Let Your Friends Know the Details in the Invitations
You want to make sure that your invitations are very detailed and that they have the all the information that your friends need. Some people send out two invitations – one that just has the RSVP and the other that has all the details. See here for invitation ideas for your shindig. You will want to include the character sheets, clue cards, and ideas for costumes. You will also want to include all the rules for the mystery.
5. Make Name Tags
There are often name tags that are included in your game kit. You can use these, or you can make your own if you want to keep with your own theme. These can be designed with a computer program and printed out, or you can hand make them to your custom design. Whichever way you choose, you need to make sure that you don’t leave anyone out.
6. Introduce People Who Should Know Each Other
Once your friends have arrived at your mystery, make sure that you introduce the characters who are supposed to know one another. For example, there may be people who are supposed to be married couples or business associates. You should make the introductions early on so that everyone can play their part to their best.
7. Repeat the Rules Before the Party “Officially” Begins
Usually at the beginning of the game, one person is told that they are the killer. This is done in private so that no one knows who they are. Then the game begins with the players all mingling and getting to know one another. There are usually three stages to the game – the mingling, the motive, and the method. Each stage is around thirty minutes long so that everyone can get the information that they need.
8. Give Murder Mystery Party Awards
Most people who do these games like to award prizes once the murderer has been named or at the end of the night if the killer was never guessed. These awards could be best costume, best detective for the person who guessed the killer, best liar goes to the murderer if they weren’t guessed, most likely to commit a crime for the non-killer who had the most votes as killer, and the best performer.
9. Facilitate But Have Fun
You want to make sure that the game keeps flowing, but you also want to make sure that you have fun while you do so. You don’t always need to be the host; you want to have fun while you do that. You want to make sure that you have fun during the game.
10. Co-Host Your First Time
If you have never hosted a murder mystery party on your own, you might want to have a co-host to help you. You might want to choose a guest to help you with some of the administrative duties such as counting votes so that you aren’t doing anything.
Conclusion
Having a murder mystery party can be lots of fun for you and all your friends. There are some steps that you should follow to make sure that everything goes well. The biggest step that you need to take is to make sure that everyone has fun!